In response to the ongoing trade war with the U.S., China this month disrupted supply chains of vital critical and strategic minerals by slow-walking exports. With near-complete control of the markets for rare earth magnets, the move got the world’s attention.
The Trump administration has been taking steps to try to develop domestic supply chains in hopes of breaking China’s control of critical minerals, but it will take years — some experts say decades — before the efforts bear fruit. While the results are long-term, experts say the actions the federal government is taking will help break that chain.
Critical minerals are usually defined as essential for national or economic security, with vulnerable supply chains, and important for manufacturing essential products. Strategic minerals, on the other hand, are often considered essential for national defense and the overall strategic makeup of a country, and may or may not have vulnerable supply chains.
“This is an area I’m actually very pleased about. They’re [the Trump administration] on fire to figure this out there. They’re all hands on deck, trying to figure out what levers they have within government, what they don’t, and what they need to bring in to give them the ability to help out this industry. And they understand very well the need — the full supply chain, from mining, the processing, the metal making, to magnets — that this needs to be supported,” Joshua Ballard, CEO of USA Rare Earth, told Just the News.
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Author: Ray Hilbrich
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